Pursuing this as an adjunct therapy for my wife's cancer treatment showed me a side of healthcare that I hadn't really considered before. Fear. Not fear of a calculated risk going the wrong way healthwise, but profound fear of stepping anywhere outside the brightly lit path of 'standard of care'. There's this phase change in the doctor's expression that you can see visually when you enter into conversations such as this (the other one being management of hyperglycemia). There's a certain slackening of facial expression and straightening of posture. The vocabulary becomes smaller, blinking more regular, tone flatter and the conversation becomes more circular.
It took me a little while to sort it out, but I've come to the conclusion that these (mostly young) doctors are so incredibly leveraged in their position by student loans and sunk cost into their education that they simply cannot risk anything outside of the prescribed approach to care for a patient...particularly one where there is generally a foregone conclusion as to the outcome. I initially raged against them individually, but now I see them as scared children and my hatred is directed towards the system that creates this fear. Should I encounter this situation again, my first goal will be to find a doctor with a terminal illness themselves and see if we can't forge a new path together.
It took me a little while to sort it out, but I've come to the conclusion that these (mostly young) doctors are so incredibly leveraged in their position by student loans and sunk cost into their education that they simply cannot risk anything outside of the prescribed approach to care for a patient...particularly one where there is generally a foregone conclusion as to the outcome. I initially raged against them individually, but now I see them as scared children and my hatred is directed towards the system that creates this fear. Should I encounter this situation again, my first goal will be to find a doctor with a terminal illness themselves and see if we can't forge a new path together.